Date: October 3, 2007
To: District IX Delegation and Email List
From: Bonnie Flanagan, District IX Trustee
Since my installation in New Orleans in June, I have attended two meetings in Chicago...one a Leadership Institute weekend and the other the recent Fall BOT meeting. Since there were only three new Trustees this year, we feel like we have a long learning curve and gravitate towards each other for support. However, the rest of the Board members have been so supportive and inclusive that we feel like we have been on the Board for a while. Needless to say, Hope, our former Trustee, is a wonderful mentor and I call her with all kinds of questions. Hopefully a year from now, it will all be routine.
I must say I am impressed with the volume of business the Board accomplishes for our Association. I wish I could bottle the enthusiasm of those Board members and spread it over the whole Association!
To give you information of what the ADHA Board is working on, I will list some of the Mega Issue agenda items discussed at the Fall Board meeting.....
1. Masterfile: This is an initiative that is currently going through research to determine what is required to create a Masterfile such as, what steps to take to create it, what are the purposes, who will use it, where will the resources come from, how can it be managed and maintained, and what are the risks of going forward and the risks of not going forward? The Masterfile would establish the ADHA as the preferred source of information about the dental hygiene profession and to be a database w/contact information, characteristics of hygienists of interest to ADHA and others, data to address questions/issues. There are only about 6 organizations in the country that have Masterfiles.
2. ADHA Branding Initiative: Tim Prosch of Contact Points, introduced the new Brand to attendees of the ADHA Annual Session in New Orleans. You can go on the ADHA web site to see the new look and see the beautiful vibrant colors. However the Brand is not just a new logo with bright colors, it is an image or a promise. It is the intellectual and emotional characteristic that holds in a person’s mind when they think of ADHA.
Tim has currently finished interviews with focus groups all across the country with dental hygiene members, nonmembers, students, dentists, and consumers. At the Fall meeting we heard and saw video clips of recent interviews with consumer focus groups. The results were heartwarming! We walked away feeling proud of what we learned from the consumers interviewed... To paraphrase Sally Field, “They like us, they really like us!” .
3. Credentialing: ADHA is doing a feasibility study to determine what our membership wants and needs in terms of credentialing. By next summer, ADHA hopes to have a more definitive direction for the credentialing initiative based on the results of the study. The process will likely be slow and methodical. The credentialing supports branding and can easily be tied to the Masterfile. Credentialing will in no way devalue associate degree entry level dental hygienists. It will provide hygienists with an opportunity to enhance what they already have and who they are. Credentialing will open alternative paths for dental hygiene practice for those interested in pursuing credentials for things like public health, special needs, geriatrics, periodontics, forensics, and orofacial myology to name some possibilities...
4. PR 12: Recently ADHA delegates received a letter addressing the Resolution which was adopted by the 2007 HOD. In order to fully understand the impact to ADHA, our Constituents and Components, a Task Force has been appointed. The Task Force is charged with reviewing Resolution 12 and advising the ADHA BOT on the clarity of the Resolution and the goals, timing, and method of implementation and the financial impact and whether and how the intent behind the resolution can be implemented in a non-threatening, fiscally responsible manner. The Task Force will report to the BOT by March of 2008. I will keep you apprised of all information related to the Resolution..
5. ADA Allied Membership: We discussed informing our members about the ADA Allied Membership and how it affects ADHA Membership. We need to make sure our members see the value in their being a member of ADHA. Only by representing our own interests can the dental hygiene profession achieve measurable and lasting success. We should ensure that our colleagues are not trading their voice or vote to any other organization in exchange for low cost continuing education.
6. The ADHA has met with the ADA for the first time in 20 years. In fact, ADHA is having a booth at the ADA meeting. The Associations plan to collaborate in some areas and agree to disagree in other areas but have opened communications.
7. The ADHP draft curriculum is on line and may be accessed on the ADHA web site.
8. The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) has met and has made changes to the Dental Hygiene Standards of Practice. Some listed are the definition of the “dental hygiene diagnosis”and “standard of care”. “Documentation” has been added to the “dental hygiene process of care”. Dental hygiene diagnosis has been in the accreditation standards in the dental hygiene process of care for several years but the Commissioners wanted to have a definition for it. These standards have been finalized but will not be implemented until January of `09.
9. At the ADHA Fall BOT meeting, Pam Quinones from District III and I met with Maddie Oelkers to discuss the 2008 ADHA Annual Session. It s still in the planning stages but it promises to be a wonderful meeting. For the first time there will be two events in one...the first part will be the Center for Lifelong Learning and the second part will be the business part of the ADHA Annual Session. Albuquerque is the host for this wonderful meeting. Since this is OUR District, please plan to publicize it to your state’s hygienists..
Thank you for all you do for ADHA! I will be in touch again soon.
If you ever have any questions, comments or concerns about ADHA or our District, please do not hesitate to contact me..
Respectfully submitted,
Bonnie Flanagan, RDH
District IX Trustee
bonnierdh@msn.com
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